Scooters will be banned from Amsterdam’s bike lanes from next spring, making cycling in one of the world’s most pedal-friendly cities even safer. It can seem baffling to visitors to the Dutch capital that mopeds are able to speed along a cycle network used by Dutch residents and families and an increasing number of tourists, with many locals considering the vehicles a menace. This week, after a seven year campaign, the city’s council confirmed that mopeds - of which there are around 35,000 in Amsterdam, up from 11,000 in 2008 - will be restricted to the roads from April 8 next year or face a €95 (£85) fine. It is expected the measure, which applies to bike lanes within the A10 ring road, will reduce the number of accidents in the city by 260 a year. Anne Knol, campaign manager for mobility organisation Milieudefensie, tweeted: “From April onwards, you don’t have to breathe scooter fumes on most of Amsterdam’s bike paths.” Regular … [Read more...] about After a seven year battle, cycling in Amsterdam just got even safer
Destinations
Great museums can bring nations
Nick Trend Follow 18 December 2018 • 9:25am “Politicians always want to blow up cultural bridges. But we will hold on to the last bridge as long as possible.” Last week, in a room overlooking the ice floes of the Neva river in St Petersburg, the director of the Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, was explaining his views on cultural links. “We can survive if we live separately,” he conceded, “but we can’t live properly if we forget about each other.” For me, this was a poignant reminder of a moment 30 years ago in that very building. I grew up during the Cold War, when Russia was relentlessly characterised as a faraway, alien culture. But I was filled with curiosity and when I first stepped into the Hermitage I felt on familiar ground – as though I was walking into the Louvre in Paris, or the National Gallery in London. I realised that some of the most important paintings acquired by Catherine the Great … [Read more...] about Great museums can bring nations
10 amazing hotels for rustic weekend breaks from New York City
In New York, the lights are always on. The 24-hour neon signs flash on a loop, Chinatown dive bars keep serving until the sun is up and there's always an open-all-hours deli where you can find a salt-beef sandwich. But after a few days of high octane action, it might feel like time to dial things down a little, so why not extend your next trip to the Big Apple with a bite of something a little more laid-back. Within a three-hour drive of Manhattan, you’ll find quaint white-picket-fence towns, low-key hipster hubs, as well as bracing mountains and surfer beaches – the challenge is where to choose. Here we round-up the very best hotels for a weekend trip from New York City. New York State The Wick, Hudson ... Register for free to read this article, or log in to your Telegraph account Register Log in … [Read more...] about 10 amazing hotels for rustic weekend breaks from New York City
Salt of the earth: Inside the Mauritius hotel where it’s all about meeting the locals
I am sipping a coconut rum at the village home of Mirella, who supplies free-range chickens and eggs to my hotel in Mauritius. Her brother is singing the Mauritian sega, beating out the rhythm on a drum against his chest. Her two-year-old grandson sways to the raw lament, originally brought to the island by African slaves, and one of her nine daughters (five of them adopted) wiggles her hips as she does the washing-up. By joining a Mauritian feast with five generations of Mirella’s family, I’m experiencing a side of the island that is not normally accessible to most hotel guests. In a community-minded move, Salt of Palmar, a newly opened hotel on the island’s east coast, is one of the first hotels in recent years to encourage guests to get out to experience the island and its people. My first visit to the east coast of Mauritius was in the Seventies, when my father was working for the British Council. I’ve returned often since then and the region has kept … [Read more...] about Salt of the earth: Inside the Mauritius hotel where it’s all about meeting the locals
Hotel Hit Squad: ‘The Wild Rabbit may have tamed the country pub, but it is ticking every box for the Cotswold clientele’
Should my children ever ask me what “misnomer” means, I will now have the perfect answer: “The Wild Rabbit, Kingham.” Reader, there is nothing wild about this most urbane country pub, owned by Lady Carole Bamford, who also possesses (in no particular order) a billionaire husband, the Daylesford organic empire and a propensity to dress everything in immaculate, expensive shades of white. Including the rooms at the Wild Rabbit. Around the corner from the Daylesford estate, the pub and 12 bedrooms were purchased and reopened in 2013, having been Bamford-ised with a lot of exposed stone, nude wood and neutral linen. It has just opened three new, dinky cottages within the village, each with two en suite bedrooms, a kitchen, a sitting room and a garden. Ideal, then, for families who want to warm milk at mad hours or put the kids to bed without whispering in the pitch-black. We are among the first to stay at the Bunny, so the bijou, bright-red Aga in its … [Read more...] about Hotel Hit Squad: ‘The Wild Rabbit may have tamed the country pub, but it is ticking every box for the Cotswold clientele’